This proposal requests funds to support the travel of scientists to the eighth biannual Gordon Research Conference on Mutagenesis, at Plymouth State College, New Hampshire, on June 29-July 3, 1992. The purpose of the conference is to provide a forum for presentations by and discussions among scientists interested in mutagenesis, in order to generate fresh perspectives and new ideas and interactions. About 135 attendees are expected from universities, research institutes, industry and government agencies around the world. The 1992 Conference will emphasize attempts to understand mutagenesis at the molecular level by focusing on recent progress using highresolution chemical, structural, biochemical and genetical approaches. The program will explore key concepts relating to the structural and enzymological basis of error discrimination, the relationship among replication, recombination, transposition and several types of DNA repair to mutagenesis, the molecular details of how DNA damage is processed into mutations, several specialized mutational processes critical for survival, and the mutational basis of human genetic diseases, including cancer. Elucidating mutational mechanisms is of fundamental importance for understanding a variety of both deleterious and beneficial consequences of alterations in genetic information.